Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Lily discovered a hidden grave...that for years everyone assumed was just a big bush.

From this...

To this...

My uncle's grave and my future resting place...

« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 11:37:35 PM by LizaSymonenko »

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

I've heard that the homeless come and take the food. It's kind of like a gift to the needy from those who have passed away.

We color eggs, and actually "roll" them on the grave.

One person on one side yells "Christos Voskrect" and rolls the egg. Another on the other side grabs it and then throws it back yelling "Voistinu Voskrec!"

This is done top, down, then right to left...making the sign of the Cross over the grave.

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God's mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

Most were shot with a Cannon PowerShot, but, I finally broke down and purchased a Nikon D5100 digital SLR, just in time to take photos during Great Lent!

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Most were shot with a Cannon PowerShot, but, I finally broke down and purchased a Nikon D5100 digital SLR, just in time to take photos during Great Lent!

Nice. they look really good!

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Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God's mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

Today's photos of the blessing of the graves, during St. Thomas Sunday (although this was the Saturday version). Usually there are way more people in attendance but, it poured rain all night, and while the rain stopped, the gusty winds were blowing hard and the temps barely got in to the 40's....so, participation was scarce. However, hopefully, tomorrow more will come.

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Today's photos of the blessing of the graves, during St. Thomas Sunday (although this was the Saturday version). Usually there are way more people in attendance but, it poured rain all night, and while the rain stopped, the gusty winds were blowing hard and the temps barely got in to the 40's....so, participation was scarce. However, hopefully, tomorrow more will come.

These wonderful photos brought tears to to my eyes Liza. They are especially meaningful to me. Thank you!

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

This year we had two children giving their First Confession on Palm Sunday. I had the great honor of preparing them. I told them that after they Confessed to step to the side and say their prayers - thanking God and asking for His forgiveness. I told them they could even stand on the Solea to say their prayers.

...and here is the result.

We have the faithful and strong Disciple, and the humble and faithful Myrrhbearer.

How sweet are they!?!?

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

I think perhaps I may have made the "wreath" of flowers overly full...

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

I take a week's vacation in the summer and teach Vacation Bible School. The theme for this one was "Light of the World"....and all the activities and studies revolved around Light - from Proverbs...don't hide your light under a bushel....etc.

The kids

In class...

Study time outside...

One must have games...

Surfing on the land...

...getting eaten by a shark...

Checking out if Lifesavors Wintergreen candies really do SPARk when bitten (on the them of Light). There's a long mirror in front of the kids and when I shut of the lights it was pitch black...and yes, they do spark. It was really cool.

..time in the kitchen is always a hit. This time we made LIGHT and fluffy cupcakes!

Continuing on the theme of LIGHT, they decorated these votives (glasses) and then we melted wax and poured them.

The kids wrote and performed skits on the last day, around the theme of "Letting their Light Shine"...where they made bad examples and then contrasted with what would have been the right thing to do, to let their light shine forth.

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Photos from today - Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. - South Bound Brook, New Jersey!

....I'm in this one, as is FrHLL!

« Last Edit: April 28, 2012, 12:02:33 AM by LizaSymonenko »

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

My new tenant....Under my porch roof I hung a "decorative" little bird house with a windchime underneath. It was meant to be a decoration only. It's tiny! ....but, these little munchkins decided to raise a family in it. Go figure! ....and they sing up a storm! Never heard birds sing so pretty!!! What beauty God has provided us!!!!

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

When I was a small child growing up on the farm we had lots of bird nests in the barns. When I would go into the barns the birds would go out, generally through the best opening for them to do so, the one I had just came in. Must have frightened me something awful. To this day if a bird comes too close to my head I about hit the deck. I know now that they wanted less contact with me than I with them, except maybe some swallows, but it's been terribly hard for me to shake it. Now, larger birds I'm okay with (chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys - yum), it's the little ones that cause me trouble. Oh, well. I still think they're pretty though, as long as they keep their distance.

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Psalm 37:23 The Lord guides a man safely in the way he should go.

Prov. 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

My local Romanian Cathedral (St. George) was celebrating their 100th anniversary about a month ago. After the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, celebrated by His Grace Irineu, they had an exhibit of various sacred objects used over the years. As always, I decided to take some photos. I couldn't really understand a word, but, the pastor of the church knows me and when I stood to take a group photo of everyone, he told the bishop who I was.....to which I got a reply for him "Ahhhh.....chemna Ukrayinka!" (Good Ukrainian) Enjoy!

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Taking my lecture on candle symbolism to the extreme. Among the various representation - light, sacrifice, etc...the kids loved the fact that the wax is flexible to remind us to be flexible to bend to the Will of God.

The theme was: The Lord is my ROCK, my FORTRESS, and my SALVATION. Therefore, I had them to "rock" related crafts....here they create pavers out of concrete. (I had no idea a bag of concrete weighed 80 lbs! Where are the men, when I need them?)

For the FORTRESS...I had them build permanent sand castles/fortress, they could take home. Cook sand with cornstarch.

Ice cream is always a hit!!! Each year I order the truck that hires veterans...so, not only are the kids happy, the vets get a bit of help.

Guest speaker:

Learning a new version of the Lord's Prayer (different melody)

Growing rocks (crystals)

« Last Edit: August 16, 2012, 10:04:34 AM by LizaSymonenko »

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

The "votives" were just little glasses I bought at the dollar store...and we made them into votives. The wax we used were the melted down remains of old beeswax candles....I just had to buy the wicks. Make sure that you glue the wicks to the bottom of the glass before you pour the hot wax, otherwise, they float off to the side, and the candle won't burn.

We colored the votives with Sharpies (permanent markers), as I found real glass paint to be cost prohibitive.....and the one we tried, the color was too light, and the whole thing was too messy for little hands. Just use the permanent markers and then spray a sealant over top....but, don't light until the sealant has completely dried!

Just some lessons ....learned the hard way.

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Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Every year around the Feast day of the Transfiguration of our Lord, our church holds their annual picnic. Here are some pics from this Sunday, which fell exactly on the Feast Day.

Baskets of fruit awaiting to get blessed.

A Typikon is served under the trees.

The blessing of the fruit, flowers and honey.

My blessed basket.

The kids of the Youth League sold ice cream and lemonade after lunch.

Pinata time! I stuffed it with chocolates, bracelets, rubber animals, and noise makers.

It's a cheap way to entertain them!

Then I had them do a scavenger hunt - look for pine cone, leaves, something that begins with a D, feather, etc.

It wasn't all hectic....there were moments of complete and awesome peace.

...and out of the deep comes.....

He kept stealing the fish we were catching. The moment one got caught, he would zoom in and snap it off the hook.

She was finally able to pull out a fish that she could keep! Notice the disgruntled turtle in the water behind her.

...and then his girl friend showed up and he was happy again.

« Last Edit: August 20, 2012, 12:29:17 PM by LizaSymonenko »

Logged

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria